Electric connector



Feb. Z, 1945. c. s. scHRoEDl-:R

ELECTRIC CONNECTOR Filed May 2l, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet l zey INVENTOR Feb- 20, 1945 c. s. scHRoEDER 2,369,860

ELECTRIC CONNECTOR Filed May 21, 1942 2 sheets-sheet 2 57' INVENTOR C 0': l'roezO/l A TTORN EY emma Feb. zo, 194s UNITEDSITATES PATENT OFFICE 2,369,860n ELECTRIC CONNECTOR Charles S. Schroeder, Philadelphia, Pa., assigner to The Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company, Stamford, Conn., a. corporation of Connecticut `application May 21, 1942, striaiNo. 443,879

3 Claims.

`an electric circuit between -the battery and the motor, or between the battery and the charging' line, b ut it will readily be appreciated that the same feature may be' useful in many fields other than that of the electric industrial truck.

A further feature of my invention resides in the manner in which the parts of my electric circuit connector are moved into assembled relation to one another by what I term a mechanical advantage means that may take the form of a toggle lever.

A further feature of my invention resides in the arrangement of the parts of my electrical connector so that the said parts may readily be moved manually into a predetermined intermediate position from which position they are then moved into final assembled relation to yone another by means which preferably are in the form of mechanical advantage means, such as the toggle lever referred to. It is a feature of the invention that in the said intermediate position, the contacts of my electric connector are out of circuit closing position. As a still further feature, the movement of the parts of the connector into assembled relation is spring resisted, and preferably the springs resisting the said movement are springs which operate behind the contacts and that are compressed when the contacts are brought into engagement by the assembly of the parts.

A further important feature of my invention resides in the provision of means whereby the parts of my electric connector are moved into assembled relation at an angle relatively to one another somewhat displaced from the flnal angular alignment of the said parts, and ythus preventing the bringing together of the several contacts until the parts approach'iinal assembled relation. The means requiring this manner of assembly vof the parts are preferably in the form of an obstruction. It is a further feature of my invention that the obstruction forms al pivot or fulcrum about which the parts of the the electrical connector.

electric connector may move angularly'relatively A to one another into final assembled relation, it being a still further feature of myinv'ention that the final movement about the obstruction as a fulcrum is effected by the mechanical advantage means or toggle lever.

Still a further feature of my invention resides in the particular construction of.the parts of the electrical connector as will be fully appreciated after a reading of the specification which follows.

My invention contributes also the feature of a locking device for preventing the movement o1 the parts of the electric connector into final assembled alignment so as to prevent unauthorized connection of the several circuits controlled by I have thus alluded to the several more important features of my invention in order that the description thereof which follows will be more readily understood by those -skilled in the art. It will be appreciated, however, that the basic conception on which the construction of my invention is based, may be embodied in many physical structures other than that which I shall herein describe. Therefore, I expect to obtain claims sufficiently broad to prevent the appropriation and use of my invention by those skilled in the art in such other forms as will readily suggest' themselves.

Referring now to the drawings, Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the parts of my electric connector showing the said parts in nal assembled relation. Fig. 2 is a section similar to Fig, 1 showing the parts in what may be termed an intermediate position from which they may be moved to the final position of Fig. 1 by the operation of a. toggle. Fig. 3 is a vertical view of the parts of my electric connector showing their outer construction, with certain yportions broken away. The parts of my connector are shown in Fig. 3 somewhat more separated than they are in Fig. 2. Figs. 4 and 5 are views respectively along lines 4--4 and 5--5 of Fig. 1.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, the electric connector of my invention comprises what may be called an outer cup-shaped casting I0 and a nesting inner cup-shaped casting Il. A pair of cables l2 are shown traversing openings I3 in the casting l0, and copper contact members I4 are secured as by soldering or otherwise directly to the ends I5 of the wires of said cables. The ends of the contacts I4 may be supplied with silver surfaces if desired, for better service. The contacts I4 are housed within bores formed in a pair of mating insulation blocks I6 and I1 that are identical in shape for economic manufacture, and are secured in the assembled position shown in Figa 1 and 2 by five screws I8 best shown in Fig. 4, the said screws being adapted for entering into suitable threaded holes in the casing I0.

The casting II has assembled thereto similar cables I2 and contacts I4, as well as insulation blocks I6 and I1 held in position by screws I8, all in ex'actly the same manner as those elements are secured within the casting Il), as will be fully appreciated. In other words, the electric circuitconnecting parts contained in the castings III and II are identical.

Each of the contacts' I4 is grooved as at 29, and entered into each of the grooves is a split steel ring 2|. A spring 22 is positioned between each of the Steel rings 2| and a surface Ilia of the insulation blocks I6, so as to maintain the contacts I4 spring pressed outwardly into the position illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.

Pivoted about the shaft on the casting III is a toggle lever 26, the part 21 of the toggle lever being adapted for entry into a slot 28 of the casting II, and for coaction with the surface 28a of the slot as will shortly be made apparent. Extending crosswise of the casting III, as may best be seen in Figs. 2 and 4, is a rod 29 that may be secured in any manner that may be desired relatively to the said casting I0. The cupshaped inner casting II has the lower portion of its outer peripheral surface grooved at 30 as is best apparent from Figs. 3 and 4, for coactlon with the shaft 29.

Having now described the more vital parts of my electric connector, it will be well to indicate ing II intothe casting I0 is best illustrated in Fig. 3, where it .will be noted that the casting II, in order to avoid obstructing shaft 29, assumes an angular relation to the casting I0 with the contacts I4 out of axial alignment. This of course is the relation of the parts where my invention utilizes axially arranged spring pressed contacts of the type described, and it is herein emphasized that other types of contacts may be employed if desired. l

Once the inner casting II is brought somewhat to the left of the position of Fig. 3, the groove 30 of the casting Il will ilt over the shaft 29 as best illustrated in Fig. 2., The lower pair of spring pressed contacts I4 will now preferably be in slight contact relation while the upper pair -of contacts I4 will be completely separated and the circuits controlled by the connector will of course be operi. Moreover, it is a particular preferred feature of my invention that the springs 22 be extremely heavy, so that it will be impossible for an operator to manually rotate the casting I I about the fulcrum of shaft 29 relatively to the casting I0, so as to bring the upper contacts I4 into the relation illustrated in Fig. 1. For rotating the casting Il about the fulcrum of the shaft 29 to bring the contacts I4 into the position of Fig. 1 against the resistance of the several springs 22. I utilise mechanical advantage means such as the toggle lever It. This toggle lever is rotated from tne position of Fig. 2 into the position of Fig. 1 and when so rotated its portion 21 first enters the slot 29 and then coacts with the surface 29a all as will be fully appreciated by those ,skilled in the art.l rJhis operation of the toggle lever not only moves the several contacts I4 into assembled relation, but also maintains the inner casting II aligned in assembled relation to the outer casting lli, with the circuits through the several contacts I4 maintained closed.

In the actual operation of 'my invention, one of the castings Ill. II will preferably be secured to form a fixed part of the industrial truck or other machine with which it is to be used, while the other casting is movable, but it is entirely possible to make both castings III and II movaole. Should it be desired to fix one of the castings III, II, I have provided the said castings with a series of bored openings designated by reference numeral 35 whereby either ofthe castings may be bolted to a fixed portion of a truck or other machine. It will now be appreciated that with one of the castings secured against movement, should an emergency arise requiring the immediate and quick breaking of the several circuits through the cables I2, a simple movement of the toggle lever 26 will allow the relatively powerful springs 22 to effect the immediate disengagement of the contacts I4 by moving the castings III and II into the position of Fig. 2 and possibly even into the position of Fig. 3.

It will be appreciated that this movement of the parts from the position of Fig. 1 to the position of rig. 2 will be relatively swift under the impact of the springs 22 so as to effect a quick and immediate breaking of the electric circuit or circuits established through the electric connector.

In order. to prevent unauthorized use of my electric connector, I employ a locking mechanism well illustrated in the several figures. There, it will be noted that the casting Il is formed with a bore 36 in which slides a bolt 31 that is adapted to be moved by an eccentric pin 38 extending from a locking snait 39. The lock shaft 39 is controlled by a usual form of key plug forming part of a lock cylinder 4II mounted within a bore 4I of the casting II, and held in place by a suitable screw stud 42. When the key to the lock, designated by reference numeral 43 in Fig. 3, is used to operate the lock and thereby rotate the shaft 39 whereby-to throw the bolt 31 from the position of Figs. 1 and 2 into the position of Fig. 3, it will be readily apparent that it is impossible to obtain further movement of the inner casting II into cup shaped outer casting I0 from the position of Fig. 3. Therefore, it will be impossible to assemble the two castings of the electric connector to close the circuits as previously described.

Auxiliary circuit closing contacts 45 and 46 are shown in the several figures, one mounted in casting I0 while the other is mounted in casting II, these auxiliary contacts moving into contact relation to close a metering or other circuit when the main contacts I4 move into cooperating relation. While the auxiliary contacts 45, 46 are shown and alluded to, they do not form a material part of my invention and further reference thereto need not be made herein. Since the operation and function of my invention is now quite apparent, no further description will be added.

I now claim:

l. In a combination ofthe class described, a pair of open end rimmed casings adapted for telea,sce,soo

'casings to be protected by said rims and adapted scoping nested relation with the open end of one casing entering the open end of the other casing, axially spring pressed contacts mounted within said casings to be protected by said rims and adapted for engagement when said casings are brought into a predetermined nested alignment corresponding to axial alignment of said contacts, said springs yieldingly maintaining said contacts in a position to oppose the movement of said casings into said predetermined nested alignment, means requiring that said casings approach said predetermined nested alignment angularly displaced from said predetermined alignment until they reach an intermediate position, and mechanical advantage means forgmoving said casings into said predetermined nested alignment from said intermediate position, against the pres'- sure of said springs.

' 2. In aAcombination of the class described, a

for engagement when said casings are brought into a predetermined nested alignment, mechanical advantage means for moving said casings into said predetermined nested alignment, and the springs of said contacts resisting the movement of said casings into said predetermined alignment by said mechanical advantage means.

3. In a combination of the class described, a pair of rimmed cup shaped casings, a pair of electric contacts in each of said casings mounted Well inside the said rims to be protected thereby, the said pairs of contacts being adapted to make contact when said casings are secured in predetermined nested alignment to one another and with said rims in telescopic relation, springs pressing against said contacts whereby to maintain said contacts yieldingly in a position obstructing the movement of said casings into predetermined nested alignment, and a toggle means for moving said casings into said predetermined aligny ment against the pressure of said springs.

CHARLES S. SCHROEDER. 

